Migrating Social Skills

Updated on October 15, 2014By Ryan James Comments Off on Migrating Social Skills

The beginning of this week has been the highlight of our social calendar. Our friend Kat, who is also from the US, has a kitchen the size of a truncated Hobbit Hole. This has enticed her to come to our place every Sunday for the last few months to cook dinner.

She plans her menu, shops for the ingredients, and then invites a couple of others over for dinner. One regular is our mutual friend Dan and the other is our new Dutch tenant Arnold. Ron makes a huge salad each week basically because everyone craves his homemade dressing. If it weren’t for the salad, they would be willing to drink it from glasses.

On Monday, we had a former Fulbrighter here for the night as a B & B guest. Years ago, he was a Fulbrighter in Pécs working with their hospice program. John has an MBA as well as a Masters in Nursing. He spent one night with us last week before heading to Pécs for a hospice conference. He was scheduled to return home on Tuesday.

Most of Monday, we continued our journey down memory lane with stories we had not had time for the day he arrived. John and his partner, Mike married in Washington, DC in September, 2014 on their 25th anniversary as a couple. We had the opportunity to meet Mike multiple times in the past. He is as wonderful as John is, making a delightful couple. We had to do the wedding pictures both ways. We looked at his; he in turn looked at ours. Of course, I had to credit our friend Jennifer Norcross with the idea for the Iowa capitol tour. It would not have occurred to me, but for which I am still grateful.

Monday evening, John took us out to dinner. We trolled the Gozsdu Udvar checking out the restaurants. There are numerous choices now, but we settled on Café Vian. István provided excellent service.

Tuesday was a bit different. For months now, a woman from Los Angeles had been trying to do a home exchange with us. When I firmly stated I was not interested in LA, she tried negotiating a triangular deal where we would go to London or Florence where she had banked time with other exchangers. As tempting as London sounded, the timing was not good. With each request, I had to decline.

Being tenacious, she continued to write me for Budapest material. I was happy to comply and send numerous e-mails like stuffed envelopes with tourism information. She finally found an exchange on Castle Hill on the Buda side. She suggested that when they arrive, she and her travel companion take Ron and me out for dinner as a thank you gesture. I have to say that many have offered this form of thanks after pummeling me for the nitty-gritty details of the city and then after they are set to arrive, I never hear from them again.

Tuesday night, Elyse and Leslie came over for a glass of wine and then the 4 of us went out for dinner. We tried the newish restaurant on our street, Mazel Tov. It opened in July of this year. Both ladies were so delightful, we will meet up with them again when they return from Eger.

With all of this social activity, we are having a difficult time returning to the stove. Adding insult to injury, Kat is going back to the US for 2 ½ weeks, so there may not be any Sunday dinners for a couple of weeks. Since we have done our share of cooking and hosting, we have tried to coerce Dan and Arnold to step-up. We will see.